Swami Vivekananda

Biography

Swami Vivekananda (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna.

 He was a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness and bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion.

Born into an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family in Calcutta, Vivekananda was inclined from a young age toward religion and spirituality. He later found his guru, Ramakrishna, and became a monk.

 After the death of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda extensively toured the Indian subcontinent, acquiring first-hand knowledge of the living conditions of Indian people in then-British India.

 Moved by their plight, he resolved to help his countrymen and found a way to travel to the United States, where he became a popular figure after the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, in which he began his famous speech with the words: Sisters and brothers of America... before introducing Hinduism to Americans. 

He was so impactful at the Parliament that an American newspaper described him as "an orator by divine right and undoubtedly the greatest figure at the Parliament".

Although Vivekananda was a powerful orator and writer in English and Bengali, he was not a thorough scholar, and most of his published works were compiled from lectures given around the world which were “mainly delivered impromptu and with little preparation”. His main work, Raja Yoga, consists of talks he delivered in New York.

On 4 July 1902 (the day of his death), Vivekananda awoke early, went to the monastery at Belur Math, and meditated for three hours. 

He taught Shukla-Yajur-Veda, Sanskrit grammar, and the philosophy of yoga to pupils, later discussing with colleagues a planned Vedic college in the Ramakrishna Math.

 At 7:00 pm Vivekananda went to his room, asking not to be disturbed; he died at 9:20 p.m. while meditating. According to his disciples, Vivekananda attained mahasamādhi; the rupture of a blood vessel in his brain was reported as a possible cause of death. 

His disciples believed that the rupture was due to his brahmarandhra (an opening in the crown of his head) being pierced when he attained mahasamādhi. Vivekananda fulfilled his prophecy that he would not live forty years. 

He was cremated on a sandalwood funeral pyre on the bank of the Ganga in Belur, opposite where Ramakrishna was cremated sixteen years earlier.